Kind of Dating
by Silberias
Summary: He'd tell her, when she woke, that he was madly in love with her, and he'd ask if they could change their relationship status from Kind of Dating to something else entirely. Like Lovers or Old Married People, something concrete. Something to hold on to.
1. Chapter 1

Again, because the last few were sad, this is to cheer you all up a bit. Not saccharine, in my opinion, but a great deal sweeter than Sakura killing herself and abandoning Kakashi. Because really? After all the teamwork he instilled in them, do you think Sakura would abandon Kakashi if everyone else were to die? Not me, I think that she'd cling all the harder to him, to keep him close, I think she'd be afraid to leave him. And he her. But yeah.

So yeah.

* * *

Not even Kakashi had been able to dodge _all_ of the kunai. Sometimes shinobi had to grit their teeth and take a few, and it wasn't as though this was the first time Kakashi had had to do that in his life. It was, however, the first time that his entire leg had been shredded from several angles. After the otherwise minor firefight was over his team medic had stabilized the major muscle groups, most of which had been sliced two or more times. They'd carted him into Konoha slung over Kiba's back because he was in no state to walk. His Achilles tendon had been slashed seven times.

Sakura was not waiting for him at the hospital because she was unconscious, in an induced coma, in order to recover from injuries sustained on her latest mission. He'd allowed himself to be wheeled into surgery without her smiling face leaning over him only because Tsunade had forbade him to wake the young woman up. Her face was not the one he woke up to, either, but rather Gai and Asuma's. They weren't unwelcome, but it was worrisome. Sakura had apparently sustained major trauma. Without the strength to move from his bed, Kakashi had slept for the rest of the day, on through the night, and awaking with the sun the next morning. She still was not there.

Asuma visited him again later in the morning, and he helped Kakashi maneuver himself out of his bed and into a wheelchair. Someone, it seemed, knew where he would be off to as soon as he recovered enough to see straight. He wasn't, however, able to wheel straight and was forced to be pushed through the hospital, into and out of several elevators, by his (now jittery) smoking friend. Her room was in a quiet zone, the somber tone of it unnerving Kakashi a great deal. He hated hospitals. It was the place where ninja came to and died.

Not him, of course, and not several—many in fact—of his friends, but it was the principle of the thing. Ninja didn't _come_ anywhere to die, they _went_ places to die. They went to Ame, Kiri, remote reaches of the world, etc, to die. A hospital could sometimes only do so much for any particular shinobi or kunoichi, men and women who had come there for help, and they died because of that inability. Medic-nin like Tsunade-hime and Sakura-chan tried to change that idea, that culture surrounding their place of work, but it was a hard habit for many ninja to break. Particularly ones Kakashi's age or older. Sakura had told him that although there were four documented episodes of he, Kakashi, visiting the hospital since the Kyuubi attack, there were none for Ibiki, Gai, or even Jiraiya-sama. Those men had not stepped foot inside of Konoha's hospital for almost two decades. It was impressive, to say the least, since Kakashi had been found, bound, gagged, and dragged to the hospital in five year rotations for those years. Medical information before the attack had been lost in the damage to the village.

Or stolen by said men, Kakashi often thought to himself. If he hadn't already been temporarily crippled he would have considered stealing his own records. Sakura would have his head when she woke up, but that looked, scarily, like it was not going to happen as soon as he'd originally thought.

It looked as though she'd nearly lost an arm, and the left side of her face looked a worrying purple in the few places her skin shone out from beneath the bandages. Kakashi felt the sucker punch of battle, the sudden dropping away of the ground beneath him. It was like an enemy had just cornered him during a bout of chakra exhaustion. Sakura was in bad shape.

Time to reevaluate.

For the past several years he and Sakura had been Kind Of Dating. They flirted and laughed together, went to dinner or the movies together (always paying their own way, because he didn't take her to dinner and she never treated him to the movies), and spent quiet afternoons together in the summer. They didn't do any of those things with other people. Once, more than a year ago, when he and Sakura had been lazing in the morning sun atop Yondaime's monumental head, Naruto had found them and questioned (with his typical bluntness) them about their status.

Kakashi had decided that that was Sakura's answer to give, he would be fine with whatever she said. He had taken her hand in his, however, to indicate his preference in the matter.

"We're…We're kind of dating, Naruto…" This answer had…kind of…made sense to Kakashi, and apparently made enough sense for Naruto who promptly plopped himself down next to them and began telling them of his plans to woo Hinata. But that had established something which had always been vague between Sakura and Kakashi, they were Kind Of Dating. Not engaged, or starcrossed, or married, or just friends, they were Kind of Dating. It made sense if one looked deeper. Ninja rarely got married or went through a long engagement period, because they could die any day. Why go through all the hassle and take a kunai to the face a week later? Anything went in the terms of relationships as well, just as long as missions were completed and training didn't suffer—the first of which was objective, and the second was subjective, to be judged by the rest of the team.

And after everything during the past few years, Kakashi would never have let Sakura say that the two of them were "just friends."

But…snapping out of his recollections, Kakashi smoothed the sheet beneath Sakura with one hand and took hers with the other, but now things were different. His leg, for one thing, was sure to eliminate him from many mission considerations. With the injuries he knew were barely stitched shut beneath his bandages, he'd be left with a trick leg at the very least if he could walk at all. Hopefully he wouldn't need a crutch. His ancestors would turn their faces away from him lest they catch any glimpse of his face or his failing.

The other thing was Sakura, who had obviously barely come back alive from her latest mission. Kakashi leaned as far forward as he could and pressed his covered cheek to her knuckles. She would recover fine, he had no doubt of that, because Tsunade only had the girl in a coma to give her body enough downtime to properly recover. There would be little lasting damage aside from some new scars. He slid his cheek up and away, kissing one of her fingertips before relaxing back into his seat. Sakura could be a formidable opponent, but just about everyone knew that her true talent lay with healing—saving lives and the like. Tsunade wanted the girl around so she could foist her into the hospital, not as director (because that was pencil pushing) but as head medic of the Jounin or ANBU wings. The Godaime also probably wanted to do that so that one of her elites wouldn't do something rash if the young woman were killed. Kakashi didn't think it rash to leave the village as Jiraiya had done, but it was a different time these days, he supposed. The woman was lucky he wasn't suicidal over thoughts of Sakura getting killed in action.

"Heh…" his abdomen ached from the small chuckle, but that was the least of his worries. What would a brilliant woman like Sakura want with an aged cripple like him? Where would he fit into her life? Kakashi hated waiting on answers, but his sensei had almost ruthlessly beaten patience into him decades ago. He was just going to have to wait until Sakura woke up. Hopefully he didn't fall asleep with his book open like last time. Sakura had turned a horrific red which didn't go at all with her hair (for a girl whose clan color was primarily red this was an impressive statement) when she deciphered the text, and Kakashi woke up an hour later under a tree he didn't remember being under, with a cold compress on his forehead he didn't remember putting there.

It kind of tied into the fact that they were Kind of Dating and not anything else—certainly not lovers, or Sakura would have been much less to be shy about his books.

* * *

"Kakashi, I thought I told you that you were confined to your room so that you could rest. Sakura was taken off the medication this morning but she might not wake up until early tomorrow." Kakashi didn't look up from his book, only settled in more comfortably to his wheelchair, injured leg stuck out in front of him, proudly displaying his tightly wrapped limb for all the world to see and admire. With one hand he held his book, a new one Naruto had brought with him from his last visit to the toad sage, and with the other he held Sakura's limp hand.

"And you have paperwork to do, Lady Hokage, but I still see you coming in here every hour. You don't even share sake with your commiserating companion!" It was true, Tsunade didn't deal well with Sakura getting this badly injured. It had been a week since Kakashi had woken up (and more like 9 days since he'd been brought home), and Sakura had been asleep even longer. He was happy her bruises were fading from her face.

Tsunade huffed at him and left the room, and one of Sakura's fingers twitched in Kakashi's hand. He smiled underneath his mask, ticking one of his fingers against hers in response. It was a game she'd begun playing with him when he was asleep in the hospital (according to Sakura, emergency care didn't count as a hospital visit, it was hospitalization. The two were apparently different). It was mostly to get him to wake up faster. Her finger ticked against his hand again.

"Sakura, wake up, wake up."

"Tired, K'Kashi, lemme sleep," she croaked. He smiled indulgently and stayed quiet, wrapping his hand around hers more securely and settled down to read. He'd talk to her when she woke up, which would hopefully be soon. He'd tell her about Tsunade's assessment of his injury—he'd be attending Academy sensei training once he was back on his feet, tell her that he would be teaching pre-Genin, because he was no longer suited for combat. And he'd tell her that he was madly in love with her, and ask if they could change their relationship status from Kind of Dating to something else entirely. Like Lovers or Old Married People, or something. Something concrete, something he could conceptualize and comfort himself with.

Kakashi, now that he was physically crippled, no longer wanted to be emotionally crippled.

* * *

Review?


	2. Chapter 2

So because The Yellow Shoe wanted so badly for there to be a sequel, I wrote one. This is, however, the end of Kind of Dating. It was never even supposed to be a two-shot! And it's told from Sakura's perspective. Enjoy!

* * *

Sakura knew this mission was going to be dangerous—escort missions always proved to be. Actual combat missions were far less dangerous—teams went into the field prepared for battle. Escort and retrieval missions were dangerous because no one ever knew what to expect and prepare for. It wasn't uncommon for those types of missions to go up several ranks as time went by. Those who hired ninja as bodyguards were sometimes oily people who had either mis-classed the mission, or had a great deal more enemies than even they knew of.

Sakura knew of the dangers of her profession, and she knew that sometimes she would just have to take the risks. The mission was an A-rank, well within her ability, and hadn't gotten any more out of hand than any of her team had expected—it was the fact that their attackers had done the admittedly smart thing and gone after the medic first, severely injuring her right off the bat. There had been no time to fix her shoulder or her elbow, which were usable save for the massive pain. Her team had needed her maimed ability as a medic and distance fighter more than she had needed her arm, so she'd let their needs take precedence. They'd separated her from her comrades toward the end of the fight, and two of the enemy nin had unleashed a storm of taijutsu against her. She'd been knocked unconscious and only woke in fevered spells for the journey home.

Mostly she was silent, save for when she would gasp at a jarring jump from whoever was carrying her at the time. The rule had been changed under the Godaime Hokage—do not abandon a mission, but do not abandon a comrade to complete a mission. Sakura knew immediately, when she read over her own report, that she would have died if they hadn't gotten her home. A concussion, four fractured ribs, a cracked vertebra, not to mention her arm which had nearly been torn off—the muscles ripped, tendons snapped, and her rotator cuff would never be the same she suspected. TenTen had smiled down at her during a rest-break she'd been conscious for and told her that they _were _bringing her home to 'Kashi.'

When she'd seen 'Kashi' waiting at her side in the hospital she'd turned bright red, realizing that she'd likely been speaking while unconscious, and that her whole team had been subjected to whatever ramblings or demands she'd had. Speaking of 'Kashi,' he didn't look like a spring chicken either. His wheelchair was as close to her bedside as it could be without a welding job, while he slumped far down into it—poor posture even while confined to a wheelchair. _A wheelchair_. Gods knew how long Sakura had been sleeping, but for Kakashi to look well rested while in a wheelchair. She started bawling, it was the only correct course of action.

"Sakura, Sakura don't cry—I'm fine, really, Tsunade-sama said if I stayed in the chair and in the hospital I could stay with you." His lone eye was crunched a little by his eyebrow trying to meld with his other, his forehead wrinkling unhappily at her outburst. With an effort, he righted himself in his chair and reached for her hands. She continued to blubber, but gave her hands over readily enough. His thumbs rubbed across the backs of her hands in a soothing gesture.

"H-how can yo-ou be fine if you're all b-bandaged up," she managed, half-hiccuping from tears, finally. He smiled behind his mask, tilting his head comically at the same time.

"I'm not dying, am I?" His expression was his usual mix of bored, but with a hint of amusement. The tears stopped for a shocked moment before they came back with a vengeance.

"How dare you joke about that, Kakashi, how dare you?" her voice rose with hysteria.

"I'm not, Sakura, I stated fact. When I'm not in the midst of dying, I'm fine. And I'm not dying right now, so I'm fine." He smiled again, unseen except for ambiguous changes beneath his mask and the appearance of crows' feet at his eye.

"Kakashi, as your girlfriend I forbid you to even sort of joke about that anymore," Sakura scowled, her face aching at the movement—those guys had meant business with their taijutsu. A light chuckle nearly dragged her out of bed and into battle-stance, save for the now serious look in Kakashi's eye.

"Ah, no, we've never really spoken about that, Sakura, so I'm only kind of your boyfriend. But I want that to change. I want to get an apartment, a house, anything, and share it with you—I want to have one grocery list, and a living room with a full-wall bookcase with all of your medical voodoo stuffed in with my strategy books. I'm not saying we should get married this instant, but I love you, and I'm going to be _around_ to love you because of this injury," he gestured to his leg, wrapped as it was Sakura could see it was something which could put someone like him out of commission for months, "and I want to know what you think about that." After his outburst he subsided, slouching just the tiniest bit into his chair.

She was at first stunned—she'd been asleep long enough for Kakashi to come to this conclusion, obviously—and then impressed. She'd been the one to start showing her interest in him, not the other way around. She was the one who had asked him out for a date years ago, and she dimly remembered Kakashi giving her the power to name what their relationship was. Kakashi mostly had just played with the cards he'd been given, never asking for more or less.

"So would we just be dating then, rather than 'kind of dating,' as you probably have it in your head?" Warmth flooded back into Kakashi's face and he shook his head.

"No, I was thinking we'd be lovers first and then we'd be old married people after that. Why be married for the first few years, anyway?" Okay, now she could get a read on how long she'd been out. He must have finished that new book Naruto had gotten him. Naruto had told her that Jiraiya's newest book might look a little like it had been based on her and Kakashi—_andwasthatokay...becauseifitwasn't,itwastoolatetochangeit...andohheyisthatHinata? Sayonara, Sakura-chan..._ He'd run off too fast for her to pummel him, and she never liked to pummel him in front of his girlfriend, either.

"Kakashi, you've been reading too much Icha Icha, but okay, I agree to move in with you. But you have to tell me what is up with your leg, are you even going to be able to walk when its healed?" He nodded gravely, wriggling his toes which peeked out the end of the bandages. The rest of his leg was swathed, just as Sakura's arm and torso were swathed.

"Tsunade-sama is having me start teaching at the Academy just as soon as I can walk. She says next month, but I don't know—now that I am going to have a live-in girlfriend I find myself motivated to get better." Sakura's boyfriend was very lucky that she was bedridden as well, otherwise he would have been batted into next week for the innuendo. She held back the private blush, however, glad that he hadn't taken it any farther—he rarely did. Although before he might have been held back by the uncertainties of their relationship—if he didn't know where a line was, he was quite careful with her to not push it.

Lines in relationships were like good tripwire traps—large, easily seen ones, followed by ones hidden by those easily seen, and then the invisible ones which always threw a team for a sometimes murderous loop. Now that Kakashi had identified the secondary, hidden line, he was going to systematically work to find the invisible ones—the ones which given enough practice he'd see without even having to look.

Where was the line between now and becoming lovers? Where was the line which marriage delineated? What about the one concerning kids? Those ones were ones which even Sakura didn't know the location of—they'd just have to figure those out together, like a good team.

* * *

Review?


End file.
